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Over the weekend Occupy Oakland protesters had a run in with the police. The Oakland branch of Occupy Wall Street was attempting to take a vacant building to make it the Occupy Oakland headquarters. Oakland police used rubber bullets and flash-grenades against unarmed protesters. Across the US, the Occupy DC movement has been the longest standing, but today the US Parks Police decided to start enforcing overnight camping ordinances.]

Occupy Wall Street protestors were cleared out of Zuccotti Park, but Now they are working in an office right next to Wall Street. The Movement hasn’t changed, it has just gained a clearer focus. Help us grow, or hide and watch!

After several months of protests at Occupy Wall Street camps all over the U.S. and hundreds of arrests, We take a look at some of the increasingly militarized tactics the police have been using against American citizens.

Occupy Oakland was celebrating Thanksgiving by sharing a meal and having a space that all could present their talents when a truck arrived to drop off portable toilets for the community. Officers were immediately on the scene and after about ten minutes the police asked the driver to leave with the portable toilets. The crowd was upset that on a day of celebration basic needs were not allowed to be delivered. Shortly afterwards an officer is seen tackling a citizen and another police officer helps push the citizen to the ground.

With the success of the Occupy Wall Street, it was only a matter of time until various groups would try to infiltrate the movement. At the Occupy Oakland protest, not only do we have concrete proof of this infiltration… The actual Police officer has come forward to respond to these allegations.

Are the Oakland Police members or infiltrators of OWS Oakland

This is Oakland Police Officer Fred Shavies responding to a recent Copwatch video produced about police infiltration at Occupy Oakland. The Copwatch video was produced by Jacob Crawford with assistance from Ali Winston and Josh Wolf. Justin Warren interviewed Officer Fred Shavies separate and independently

The “Black Bloc” is sometimes confused with an actual anarchist movement, but in reality it is a tactic long in use by protesters around the world, having it’s origins in Germany after the 1977 Brokdorf demonstration. The “Black Bloc” tactic, was developed in direct response to the police brutality experienced during these demonstrations, similar to what many Occupy Movement protesters are experiencing in various cities, most notably Oakland California.

Tactics of a black bloc can include vandalism, rioting and street fighting, demonstrating without a permit, misleading the authorities, assisting in the escape of people arrested by the police, administering first aid to persons affected by tear gas in areas where protesters are barred from entering, building barricades, and resisting the police. Property destruction carried out by black blocs tends to have symbolic significance: common targets include banks, institutional buildings, outlets for multinational corporations, gasoline stations, and video-surveillance cameras.

There may be several black blocs within a particular protest, with different aims and tactics. As an ad hoc group, they share no universally common set of principles or beliefs apart from an adherence to–usually–radical left or autonomist values. A few radical right-wing groups, like some of the “autonomous nationalists” of Europe or the Australian National-Anarchistshave adopted “black bloc” tactics and dress.

But it seems that the tactic so widely in use by protesters around the world, might soon serve to derail the burgeoning peaceful Occupy Movement. An example of this was seen during the Occupy Oakland protests this week. The message and goals of the main Occupy objectives have been overshadowed by the actions of a few “Black Bloc” protesters, almost as if their actions were scripted by Fox News or the very institutions and policies that we are protesting against. Perhaps the “Black Bloc” participants are really agents of the authorities.Regardless of who they may be working for or against, their tactics are giving the police yet another reason to suppress the demonstrations around the country, responding with even more brutal force than has already been encountered.

The question we should be asking ourselves is, does this tactic really further our cause, or just demonstrate to our opposition, that they were right all along?

There were three separate instances of police using teargas, all near to the Occupy camp, as tensions erupted when protesters occupied a disused building.

Earlier a thousands-strong march had closed down Oakland’s port after a day of striking had seen streets closed in downtown and some banks damaged.

Police first used teargas on Broadway at 12.30am, following a day which had actually seen a light police presence.

Officers arrived on the street – the scene of the police clearout of Occupy Oakland on Tuesday 25 October which left Scott Olsen seriously injured – after protesters occupied a disused building on 16th Street.

Scores of protesters entered the building as loud music was played downstairs, some climbing onto the roof while others assessed the internet capabilities. By midnight a street party was in full swing outside the fresh property – but the hi-jinks were to be short-lived.

Sporadic reports of a growing police presence had been sweeping through the crowd, and finally about 200 police gathered at 19th Street and Broadway in full riot gear, walking slowly down to protesters.

Some demonstrators, keen to keep hold of their new occupation, had created a barracade of wooden pallets and rubbish bins at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, and as police approached these were set alight.

Fires burn in on broadway in downtown Oakland Photograph: James Fassinger/Stillscenes

Police stopped around 100m away before advancing again, with some protesters walking forward to meet them. Officers then deployed teargas and about three explosive devices, which were described by some present as flashbang grenades.

As protesters ran for cover, police moved forward again, but were once more prevented from moving down to the barracade, which was now completely ablaze.

Again, police deployed teargas, but this time it seemed in greater concentration or quantity. As officers threw flashbang grenades to force protesters back – around 10 were used – this reporter witnessed two demonstrators hurl items in retaliation.

Lauren Freitas was among those caught up in the chaos, and said she had been struck on both legs by projectiles.

“I was tending to this guy’s eyes [after the first teargas was deployed] and then they fired more teargas, so I pulled him to the side to move away and then they hit me in my legs.”

Freitas said of the pain: “It fucking hurts. It stings.”

The first two operations seemed to subdue the crowd, and by around 1.30am police controlled the north side of Broadway and had extinguished the blaze on 16th Street. Further bangs could be heard, however, to the east, from the direction of Frank H Ogawa plaza.

Teargas was again deployed there, and flashbang grenades and another type of non-lethal projectile appeared to have been used.

One man, who onlookers said was homeless and a regular in the area, appeared to have been hit on the knee by a projectile, and was carried away screaming. He received treatment from medics from Occupy Oakland.

The clashes marred what had been a largely peaceful day’s protesting in Oakland. Demonstrators had called for a general strike, and thousand gathered in the streets of downtown in warm sunshine, listening to speakers and dancing, while every so often darting off on a sporadic march.

Oakland protesters march on the port. Photograph: James Fassinger

Although most of the marches were peaceful, at least three banks – Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America – were damaged during the day, with windows smashed and cash machines put out of service.

Much talk in the camp was of a rogue group having committed the acts, without the backing of most protesters.

Bubb Rubb, from Oakland, was unimpressed with “these people in black clothes, with black flags”.

“They bamboozled us. They wanted violence,” he told the Guardian.

Many of the sites that were vandalised bore posters next to where the incident had occurred, saying it was “not the actions of the 99%”.

Organisers’ main focus of the day was the march to the port, designed to shut it down by preventing workers from accessing it to begin their night shifts.

Thousands of people gathered at Frank H Ogawa plaza for the 5pm start of the march, which headed south and left contingents of protesters at four different sites to guard the port. By 8pm the port had been declared closed, with some demonstrators celebrating victory and others pledging to stay until Thursday.

Before the march, however, the Oakland police officers‘ association criticised Mayor Quan for allowing city employees other than police to take Wednesday off, while simultaneously calling in all 645 Oakland officers to police the strike.

Quan tweeted at about midnight urging protesters to call her office, citing reports a barricade was set up on 16th Street. She tweeted shortly later saying that police had not yet taken action, but had not posted again at the time of writing.

While Oakland police have received much of the criticism for previous events in the city, on Wednesday night it was Alameda county sheriffs who appeared to be manning the confrontational end of the operation – their officers lining Broadway and apparently discharging the teargas and other weapons.

The recent events at Occupy Oakland have galvanized the Occupy Wall Street movement. There is definitely a new resolve among the protesters in each city, not only in America, but world-wide. The Iraq War Veteran and Marine named Scott Olsen who was injured by police at Occupy Oakland, has quickly become the movements latest hero and rallying cry. So imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up a little late, and realized that my phone and email had been going crazy.

Just what was causing all the buzz? Well…….. somewhere in the deep recesses of the Cyberspace lays a now defunct website called IHateTheMarineCorp.com . The website, which is no longer active was an anonymous forum that allowed current and former Marines to vent their grievances against the USMC with complete safety and anonymity.

The now defunct site seems to have been founded by Scott Olson, the Marine critically injured by Oakland Police this week at Occupy Oakland and Olsen is the former registered owner of that internet domain.

Apparently The Right seems to think that this is the bombshell which will extinguish the fervor behind not only Scott Olsen, but perhaps the Occupy movement itself.

Scott Olsen is an American. A 24-year old Marine who served not 1 but 2 tours in Iraq. That alone makes him and thousands of Soldiers and Veterans like him MY Hero, and I Thank You For Your Service. Olson’s love of Country and what is right, does not stop there however.

Veterans for Peace

He is also a member Veterans for Peace, an organization founded in 1985. Consisting of male and female US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflicts, as well as peacetime veterans. Veterans for Peace works to promote alternatives to war.

But Scott Olsen’s commitment went further. He knew based on his personal experiences in the military, that War was not pleasant, that many, like him had grievances which were not addressed, and that some, if the persons identity were ever exposed, their military career could be and would be jeopardized. Thus the anonymous forum”IHateTheMarineCorp.com” was conceived and created. Scott Olsen’s foray into Anonymous Web Forums ultimately did not survive, but while researching information for this blog post, I found many websites and/or forums that were, if not directly inspired by Olsen’s efforts, at the very least they had the same general idea. As American’s we still enjoy the right to Freedom of Speech. I may not necessarily agree with someone or even have to, but I will defend their right to express themselves always.

Last but certainly not least, Scott Olsen, like many of us, felt compelled to participate in the Occupy Movement. To stand up for what is right, and reject what is wrong. Sadly, this 2 tour Iraq war veteran, who was not injured in the conflict abroad, came home to his country to be critically injured in the growing conflict at home, by an organization that is only supposed to protect and serve the American Public.

Ironically, The Right has attempted to use the culmination of this information in an effort to disparage and demonize the service and character of Scott Olsen. I have seen and read everything from him supposedly being Anti-Semitic, to being a traitor or deserter, when nothing could be further from the truth. My response to the Right is an emphatic, “Try Again”.

Scott Olsen did not choose to be the latest Hero of Occupy movement and we cannot and will not allow others to choose our heroes for us. Real Heroes are never chosen. We know them when we see them, and we thank them when we meet them. Thank You Scott Olsen, for we are ALL Scott Olsen.

Anonymous message to Scott Olsen of Occupy Oakland

Author’s Note:

I did the followup research on this myself… it seems to be the same guy… I have been hearing about a similar article on PoliticsUSA where they cast some doubt as to the ownership of the domain IHatethemarinecorp.com. by merely referencing The Domain WHOIS information, which can be seen here:

But what the politicsUSA story does not find is the Pledgie.com fundraising account that is connected to the Ihatethemarinecorp.com that is also registered to a Scott Olsen to include a profile picture which has been open since May 10, 2010 under the user name solsen230

This additional information, does not change a thing. I look at Scott Olsen as a Hero, not by his choice, by by circumstance, and we should support him in his recovery…. again… Thank You for Your Service Scott Olsen, both here, and abroad.

In addition the Politics USA story also goes on to say
“This doesn’t mean that it can’t be the same Scott Olsen, but the point is, what does it matter? This is America. Scott Olsen is still a hero who served his country in Iraq, and a hero does not deserve to be smeared in a desperate attempt to discredit a movement.”